Friday, March 15, 2019New Mexico Is Blue But Not California Blue; Progressive Social Issues Agenda Gets Crushed In Santa Fe While Economic Platform Fares Better Somewhat breathtakingly, given the Democratic landslide in last year's election, nearly the entire social issues agenda of the progressives and MLG collapsed in Santa Fe while more liberal economic measures have fared better. The right to die bill died in the House when its sponsor pulled it because it lacked the votes for House passage. Last night the abortion bill that would have repealed an antiquated state law that makes abortion a crime, except in cases of rape, went down in flames on a 24-18 vote in the Senate after easily passing the House. And it wasn't just those conservative Dems voting no on the abortion measure and who often form a coalition with the R's to thwart the progressive agenda. This time it included Northern Dem Hispanic Catholic Senators Carlos Cisneros, Pete Campos and Richard Martinez. They were joined by new Hispanic Catholic Dem Senator Gabe Ramos of Silver City. Then there was the progressives' bill to legalize marijuana which made it through the House but got stiff armed in the Senate and is dead for this year. Again, Hispanic senators more friendly to economic populism were not ready to go there. The only major progressive social issue that managed to a win was the bill mandating background checks for just about every type of gun sale in the state, But calling it "progressive" might be a stretch. Polls show the checks are overwhelmingly supported by D's and R's. But it was like another state when it came to many of the banner economic issues of the session: --Enviros and MLG scored a major victory with the Energy Transition Act (ETA) to increase the amount of renewables used to generate electricity. --Progressives savored a nearly $450 million increase in the public schools budget; teacher pay raises of six percent and state employee pay hikes of 4 percent. --They delighted in the $700 million overall increase in the state general fund budget, taking it to $7 billion for the first time ever. --And late Thursday evening, after nearly a decade of no increases in the state's $7.50 an hour minimum wage, there will finally be a healthy hike progressives could somewhat celebrate. A House-Senate conference committee compromise agreed to raise the state minimum to $12 by 2023. The first increase starts January 1, 2020 at $9 an hour and goes up every year until 2023. The compromise does not include indexing the wage to inflation and it maintains the tipped wage for restaurant servers.
The restoration of the progressive tax structure--raising the income tax on the wealthiest taxpayers so it would cease being the same as the lower brackets--was one important progressive economic issue getting beaten back (another was the constitutional amendment to tap the state's Land Grant Permanent School Fund for early childhood education.)
But how much to tax the well-to-do could be the opening progressives need to help take out the likes of conservative flat tax supporter Dem Senator Clemente Sanchez in 2020. House Speaker Egolf seemed to sense it when he proposed a late compromise that would have the highest tax rate kick in on incomes of $250,000 instead of $200,000. That higher amount will probably still lose, but it could be an effective campaign issue for a Clemente primary foe. WHAT IT MEANS  What does that mean politically? Well, for progressives aching to run primary challengers against conservative rural Dem Senators, it means challengers will want to stick with the bread and butter issues and bend a bit toward the conservatives socially. For Governor Lujan Grisham, who was especially stung by defeat of the abortion bill (she noted her discontent on Twitter) it means her path to success in turning around the state's education system and its economic malaise is wide open. But if she presses too much on the hot button issues that went down to defeat at the hands of her own party's social conservatives she will get intense push back. And there you have a New Mexican shade of Blue. Or maybe we should have our own distinct color given our state's unusual split on economic and social matters. How about a special color of turquoise? Like this: Located in Los Cerrillos, New Mexico, the Little Chalchihuitl mine is one of the oldest mining spots in the U.S. The turquoise found here is a stunning light green-blue color with gray or brown streaks, making the stone incredibly interesting to look at. Yep. That's a good color for our politics and like that turquoise, they have been incredibly interesting to look at. THE BOTTOM LINES In our first draft Thursday about the bill (SB323) decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana we said the legislation would make possession of half an ounce or less of marijuana a "pretty misdemeanor." We took that from the bill's Fiscal Impact Report but we read it wrong. It would be a petty misdemeanor if you were arrested with more than half an ounce. For half an ounce or less the bill would make the possession a civil matter, not a criminal matter, and it would be punishable by a small fine. This is the home of New Mexico politics. E-mail your news and comments. (jmonahan@ix.netcom.com) Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.   (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2019 |
  |
